A peaceful NATO protest gets hijacked

For a few moments Sunday at Cermak and Michigan, the protest that had struggled to find its focus came sharply into view.

In the shadow of the NATO summit, thousands of marchers shuffled to a stop and waited as a group of military veterans took the stage, carrying an American flag. They folded the flag and presented it to the mother of a fallen soldier. Then one by one, the veterans tossed down their combat medals as the crowd chanted "peace, peace, peace."

At long last the message was on point. Inside the convention center to the east, NATO allies discussed long-term strategies for protecting Afghanistan. Outside, the crowd pleaded for an end to war. The right voices, the right venue. It was powerful stuff.

Protest leader Andy Thayer spent months negotiating with City Hall over a permit. He said he "expected nothing but hostility from this administration" and described Chicago as having a "world-class reputation for police brutality."

Turns out, the hostility bubbled up from the protesters. The noisemakers in black shoved their way to the front and hijacked the show. As the program wound down and the crowd prepared to disperse as agreed, the black-clad protesters tried to press forward toward the convention center.

Police ordered the crowd to leave, and all but a few hundred headed west. The others chanted "NATO's east! NATO's east!" and refused to be herded the other way. They squared off against a wall of police in blue riot helmets, shoving and shouting. The standoff lasted for hours.

That image dominated the day's live news coverage. That's natural, but it's also a shame. It was an ugly few hours during a mostly peaceful day, near the end of a mostly peaceful week.

Thousands of demonstrators had traveled to Chicago, taking advantage of the international spotlight to lobby for their pet causes. At times it was hard to figure what those causes had to do with NATO.

As the crowd assembled in Grant Park in preparation for the march Sunday, protesters waved signs and passed out literature for every agenda under the sun. Stop the wars, yes. But also: Stop global warming. Stop privatizing detention centers. Stop conducting military trauma testing on animals. Stop shopping! Take back our public schools, break down the jail cells and remember Trayvon Martin.

The groups were held together loosely under the banner of Coalition Against NATO/G-8 War and Poverty Agenda. But those characters in black seemed to have no purpose but to call attention to themselves and dare police to stop them. So much for solidarity. So much for their message, if they had one.

You don't prove anything by shouting down your comrades in the name of free speech.